Late Summer Bloom

In August we are presenting a collection of paintings to celebrate the beauty of flowers, with new works by Sarah Spackman, Vicky Oldfield, Rebecca Hardaker and Nadia Koo.

Stepping into the gallery will be like taking a walk through the garden!

We are delighted to present in this collection four new paintings by Sarah Spackman. The three floral pieces were painted through the intense heat in July, and you can feel how she has captured the shimmering colour of the flowers in the strong sunlight against bold backgrounds.

The colour exploration in ‘Pink Nasturtiums’ is a tour de force, the balance of all the reds, pinks, and greens is complex, they vibrate beautifully against each other.

They are joined by a still life of seasonal apricots, the fruits sit next to a cool blue background, created from many tones of colour the soft slightly fuzzy flesh looks perfectly ripe and inviting.

Vicky Oldfield is the most painterly printmaker, carefully hand colouring her collograph editions with watercolour, pastel and collage. This unique approach suits her compositions of bottles and flowers, highlighting her love of nature, pattern and colour.

In the new collection we have a stunning single flower purple anemone. Through the layered application of inks and paint the stamen at the centre of the flower look thick with pollen as the rich purple petals stretch out across the paper. These single studies began to emerge in Vicky’s work when she undertook a course in botanical drawing. Understanding the technical structure of the flowers gives her freedom to exaggerate and explore their form. 

Rebecca Hardaker continues her poetic journey in painting and exploring the meaning of the words through mark making colour and gesture.

Her two largescale paintings are exuberant with detailed mark marking creating a stunning tangle of flora and fauna, like we are taking a deep dive into densely planted flower border next to water, the effect is highly impressionistic.

The titles for Rebecca’s paintings come from her love of poetry ‘Echoing Green’ comes from the poem by William Blake ‘Echoing Green’ and ‘Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight, and all the air a solemn stillness holds’ comes from Thomas Gray’s ‘Elegy written in a Country Churchyard.'

Nadia Koo has created four striking still life pieces, the intensity of the colour in the blooms captures sunlight filtered through petals. Contrasted by bold black and white vessels from her collection of ceramics. These cheerful works are complimented by two new paintings Seedlight I & II. Nadia reflects that they are a departure from her previous works, the colours are more muted and contemplative.

She says: ‘I’ve been going through a quieter, more reflective phase of life lately, and I think that’s naturally filtered into the work.

The seed pods started as just forms I liked, but as I painted, they began to feel more symbolic — of pause, of potential, of something waiting to grow. These pieces mark a kind of turning point for me, or maybe just a moment to rest and wonder what might come next. ‘